The Leshan Giant Buddha (also known as Dafo) is the largest and tallest stone Buddha statue in the world and it is by far the tallest pre-modern statue in the world.
It's easy to get to the modern Chengdu Train Station to catch the high-speed train to Leshan, and then another local bus to the riverside park that houses the statue, Lingyun temple, ancient tombs and a beautiful forested walk to a fishing market and village at the water’s edge.
The Giant Buddha was carved out of a cliff face of Cretaceous red sandstone that lies near the city...

Guess what?.... I’m on a train, of course I am. This time I feel like I’m in complete luxury though as I’m on a soft sleeper so I’m in a compartment with three other people (instead of an open carriage with about 35 other people) and I’m on the top bunk but I can sit up! Small things….
I’m on my way from Chengdu to Guilin in the south of China… I’m really looking forward to this next stop as I am heading into the mountains rather than being in a city…. The first time since I left the trek group. The train will drop me off at Guilin station...

We really had to work to get to Tibet. When in Mongolia (poor Mongolia, it really can't get a break in my book), Nick (our driver and company owner) broke the terrible news that the authorizing Chinese agency issuing our special permit into Tibet informed him that Tibet was closed to tourists in September. We could not go at all. Imagine our disappointment; spending all this money (about $230/day for the two of us, definitely over our budget) on this Chinese portion of the trip because an organized tour was the only way to get approval for...

The rest of Sichuan was chock-full of surprises, most of them wonderful. One of the main tourist attractions of this area is the 1200-year-old Giant Buddha of Leshan, carved into the rock on the side of the confluence of the Dadu River and Min River to calm the waters. At 71 meters tall it is now the biggest Buddha in the world since the huge stone one in Pakistan was destroyed by Taliban. We took a boat along the river to check it out properly, and it was quite an impressive sight. Unfortunately the sun was in the wrong spot and the photo...

We were so lucky to have Tom with us during our time in and around Chendu. Not only is his heritage Qiang (another minority group in China native to that region), but he also currently lives in Chendu so he gave us a unique perspective to this area. We visited a rebuilt Qiang city that felt akin to Disneyland's Epcot Center, with elaborate royal court sets, Indiana Jones-like temples, a short ride, and myriads of people in colorful costume singing and doing handicrafts. I tell you, I can't for the life of me find the name of the place on...

While the camping left quite a bit to be desired, a big advantage of taking an overland truck was that we got well off the beaten path and explored a variety of small towns. Often we were the only Westerners we saw all day, which was particularly interesting at holy mountain sights and other cute touristy towns like Songpan that have long been discovered by Chinese tourists. Right on the border of Sichuan and Gansu, the town of Langmusi was quite interesting in that it is dominated by a Buddhist monastery but has a large Muslim population....

7/6 Well today’s plan was canceled due to communism and paranoia!
I attempted to visit Tianfu Square at the city center where the largest statue of Chairman Mao is located. What I did not expect where the platoons of police, riot patrols, and security check points just to enter the square……this is a great deterrent to visitation! It frankly looked like they were ramping up in expectation of some kind of trouble. I decided I was quite happy to look from across the street, snap a few cell phone pics and then head the other direction as I was...

7/4 Today started out low key, weather prevented much going on in the AM. Ryan picked me up around 1:30 and would not tell me where we were going lol but that we had to take the metro……..let me tell you the staring was awesome! I feel like I’m being studied most of the time here.
We got off at a station in the 3rd ring (I think) that I could not pronounce and when I walked up the stairs I was confronted by the biggest building in the world! No really, the New Century Global Center really is listed as one of the largest in the world! The...

One word to describe Chengdu? PANDA……everywhere!!!
OMG they are everywhere! Panda everything, I even saw a Panda Police station today. It’s starting to get scary and I’ve only been here 1 day lol Today was very low key. I have apparently caught up to the weather I thought I left behind in Hong Kong as it rained all morning……a welcome change to the oppressive humidity. It was really lovely to sit in the open window of my little 12th floor apartment and hear and smell the rain and enjoy the cool air!
By 1PM I had cabin fever and decided Ryan...

7/1 Today I spent my morning wrapped up in a book that reminded me why I study history and anthropology; to know people.
Kristen and I undertook a little book swap when I arrived in Sanya and have both dedicated time to reading. While my contribution to the swap was of no great literary value the book she loaned me has been an amazing portal into the lives of a population that I had only taken a cursory view of in my past studies. While I am no scholar of Asian history nor feminist studies, most of my time spent on American and European...

10 April 15,
Good morning from Guilin, the hotel has to be as bad as Fawlty Towers in as much as there has at some stage been a massacre in our room and carpet cleaners seem a rarity here. Felix, our Chinese Guide, tried to get us another room but they are all as bad…. Breakfast form 0700 - 0930 but at 0800 all that was available was cornflakes, juice & toast. All the hot food had gone cold, the baine maries were off, very disappointing as we are going mountain climbing today and were told to have a big breakfast as lunch will not be served...